In the State of Solid State 2011 we predicted that Plextor would be the first to market with a Marvell 88SS9174 controlled SSD and what do you know, we were right. Plextor is claiming that the new M2 is now shipping in the US with speeds up to 480MB/s read and 330MB/s Write. This new controller is the final version of what we tested from ADATA several months ago, the difference being that the controller is now ready for retail.
Personally I can't wait to get my hands on the new drive to see if it lives up to the hype we've been hearing since last June. The timing couldn't be better either since there is now a shortage of 3Xnm flash and many companies are moving their SandForce SF-1200 production to 25nm flash modules. The 25nm flash will work out really well for next generation SSDs but are causing headaches for unsuspecting owners who are finding their SF-1200 drives with 25nm flash to perform slower than the drives we've tested over the last year and two months. Look for a full story in the coming days as we are wrapping up putting the pieces together.
Plextor's New SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive Available Now
Plextor's M2 Series SSD is one of the first to support SATA 6Gb/s and one of the fastest SSDs in the market
(Fremont, CA - February 8, 2011) - Plextor LLC (http://www.plextor.com/), a leading developer and manufacturer of high-performance digital media equipment, announces the immediate U.S. availability of its new M2 Series SSD. Supporting the latest SATA 6Gb/s, the M2 Series SSD is currently one of the fastest SSDs available in the market.
Utilizing a Marvell 88SS9174 controller, this 2.5 inch SSD is available in three capacities: 64GB, 128GB and 256GB. The 128GB and 256GB models each provide sequential read rate up to 480MB/s and sequential write rate up to 330MB/s, allowing users to read and transfer data much faster compared to other SSDs with SATA II interface.
"Plextor is pleased to continue building its presence in the SSD market by offering a new and faster generation of SSD," said Kathy Huynh, Product Marketing of Plextor. "The M2 Series SSD is ideal for any demanding gamer, system integrator or user who demands dependability but won't sacrifice speed."
By incorporating Plextor's Instant Restore technology and Dynamic Wear Leveling algorithm along with Windows 7 TRIM command support, the M2 Series SSD is able to manage memories ever so efficiently to overcome the performance loss typically associated with prolonged usage.
Also featured, are the 128MB DDR3 cache buffer resulting in even faster response times for consumers, and the large cache also helps ensures each drive will provide reliable and sustained performance over time.
With a MTBF rate beyond 1.5 million-hour, the M2 Series SSD comes with Plextor's three (3) year warranty and is bundled with Acronis True Image software which gives users instant tool for disk cloning and backup.
The M2 Series SSD is available now with the following MSRPs: 64GB ($179.99), 128GB ($329.99) and 256GB ($699.99).
Read More ...
Plextor US Site Hacked on the Day of the M2 Launch
Plextor is all ready to start telling you about their new SATA 6G SSD today but will first have to overcome a small hurdle with their web security. At this time the US website has been hacked by some loser who thinks it's cool to go around tagging their name all over the place. Hey guys, go get a can of spray paint and put your name all over your mamma's basement where you hang out on weekends.
Read More ...
Download of the Day: Skype 5.2.0.102 Beta
Our Download of the Day today is Skype 5.2.0.102 Beta.
Skype is software for calling other people on their computers or phones. Download Skype and start calling for free all over the world.
The calls have excellent sound quality and are highly secure with end-to-end encryption. You don't even need to configure your firewall or router or any other networking gear.
Additionally it doesn't just work on Windows. Skype is also for Mac OS X, Linux and PDAs using Pocket PC, with a native look and feel for each platform. Talking, sending instant messages or even file transfers work between different platforms like a charm.
• Skype calling - Skype has all the features of an ordinary phone so it's even easier to manage your calls.
• Video calling - see who you are talking to at the same time as speaking to them.
• Add Skype and SkypeOut contacts - Add contacts who use Skype and those who use ordinary phones so you can call more people.
• Organising groups - group contacts under certain names and share them with your contacts so they can talk to them too.
• Basic chat and emoticons - when it's not convenient to call, chat or Instant Message (IM) your contacts.
• Group chat - for when it's easier to chat or Instant Message (IM) all your friends at once.
• Profile settings - change how you appear to the world and let people know a bit about you.
• Conference calling - talk to more than one friend at a time.
• Import contacts - search your address book to find friends and family that already have a Skype name and start calling them for free.
• View Outlook contacts - view and call your Microsoft Outlook® contacts quickly and directly from your Skype contact list.
• Quickfilter and Speed-Dial - find Skype contacts, recent chats and SkypeOut contacts quickly and easily, then enter their Skype name to call them back quickly.
Read More ...
Deal of the Day: Lenovo Multimedia Remote with Keyboard for Only $29.99 with FREE Shipping
Our Deal of the Day today is the Lenovo US (ThinkPad) - Lenovo Multimedia Remote with Keyboard for Only $29.99 with FREE Shipping!!.
Offer: It's back at the $29.99 price again thanks to a new ecoupon. One of the all time favorite gadgets for nearly everyone, if you still don't have one, or want to pick up another (or 3) get it today. This handy remote features a keyboard and a trackball for wireless remote connectivity of your media center (or others) from the comfort of your couch. Use ecoupon: USPC11F26336 (expires 2/14/11)
Read More ...
Samsung Galaxy S II and 10.1-inch Galaxy Tab II confirmed
Samsung are ready to take over the Galaxy with the release of the, uh, Galaxy S successors. Samsung's Galaxy S II will sport a 4.3-inch 800x480 super AMOLED Plus display, a 1GHz dual-core Orion/Exynos processor, NFC, Bluetooth 3.0 and 24Mbps HSPA+ connectivity.
Rumors seem to point toward the Galaxy S II being 8.49mm thick at its thinnest point and 9.9mm at its fattest point which is where the camera module will most likely be. As for the Galaxy Tab II, it will be the 10.1-inch Honeycomb-powered tablet that has been rumored for a while now. It should have a 1280x800 resolution, 1GHz chip - which is not confirmed to be single or dual-core at the moment.
Samsung is also looking at the future with a 4-inch WVGA display that is 3D capable with a "Motion UI" control scheme. This Motion UI should be capable of panning inside Google Maps and Street View by just the movement of your phone - fancy, huh!
Read More ...
Crysis 2 gets leaked in buggy form
Cevat Yerli is surely through two or three bottles of some very expensive scotch. Crysis 2 has been leaked in some very poor form, Direct X9-only, 64-bit only, audio does not work through USB.
But the good things is it runs at roughly 60fps on a GTX570 at hardcore graphics settings, so minimum requirements should be much better this time. This is to the benefit of consoles, but might work against us PC-gamers for ultimate eye candy if a single GTX570 can give 60fps.
The leak is a very bad build, and shouldn't take any of the sales away from the full game. Speaking of which Crytek, I'll take a copy for free thanks! ;)
Read More ...
LG unveils its Optimus 3D mobile
The Mobile World Congress 2011 is set to start in Barcelona any hour now and LG has announced it's Optimus 3D smartphone ahead of the event. LG will also be showing off their new Optimus flagship devices - Optimus Pad, Optimus 2X and Optimus Black.
The Optimus 3D P920 will come packed with a dual-core 1GHz processor and a 4.3-inch display, it will also run Android 2.2 and will be upgradeable to Android 2.3 along with the Optimus Black and Optimus 2X. Optimus 3D is also capable of recording 3D content with the help of it's dual-lens camera as well as HDMI-output.
Read More ...
AMD to abandon its Sempron, Athlon and Phenom brand names?
AMD are rumored to can the Athlon, Sempron and Phenom brand names in favour of its AMD Vision trademark. AMD are set to introduce their codenamed Llano and Zambezi microprocessors later this year but, will not introduce a brand-name for them. Instead, AMD will put them into different classes of Vision platforms.
Zambezi-based processed which are built on the Bulldozer micro-architecture will include four, six or eight cores will be branded under the FX-series and sold under AMD's Vision Black and AMD Vision Ultimate labels. Llano on the other hand will include two or four cores as well as sporting Radeon HD 6000 series graphics cores and will be known as A-series processors. These chips will be part of the AMD Vision Ultimate and AMD Vision Premium platforms.
The lower-end of the market will be given E-series units with single or dual cores and a basic Radeon HD 6000-series graphics code-named Zacate under an AMD Vision sticker. AMD slashing the Athlon, Phenom and Sempron range is not an easy thing but, it will eventually lead to a more simplified line up of CPU's. Having different classes will help the end user who is not necessarily 'tech-savvy' to differentiate between the AMD range of products.
Read More ...
Quick Review: OCZ Gold XTE Series PC3-17000 4GB Kit
While on the P55 platform 2000MHz DDR memory worked great due to our divider choices, and 2133MHz was a bit of a pain due to having to tweak extra settings, the tables have really turned on the latest Intel chipset.
We've mentioned already a number of times, including in our OCZ Platinum XTE review of the 2000MHz DDR kit, because of there being no divider for 2000MHz DDR you have to adjust the very limited BCLK. What it ultimately means is a bit of a hit and miss experience with 2000MHz DDR memory. If it's good overclocking RAM, you'll be ok. If not, you could struggle to hit the default clocks due to the limited option in the BIOS.
Today, though, we hope to completely miss that issue with the Gold XTE series which while lower on the food chain in the OCZ line up; does carry with it a higher clock speed; in this case 2133MHz DDR.
Like the Platinum series there's not much going on in the package with the two modules being the main highlight. The two 2GB modules come in at 2133MHz DDR as we have already mentioned, and on the timings front we're seeing a 10-10-10-30-1T @ 1.65v setup.
Setting our motherboard to run at 2133MHz DDR and manually setting the timings and voltage to as above result in a boot up straight away. You can see that CPU-Z validation here. Now in Windows at the default speeds, it was time to see what performance was like.
Under AIDA64 we ended up with Read / Write numbers of 21,260 MB/s / 18,148 MB/s, Copy speed of 22,248 MB/s and latency of 39.9ns. Looking at SiSoftware Sandra, our memory bandwidth numbers are 27,210 MB/s for Integer and 27,220 MB/s for Float.
For 2133MHz DDR memory these are some of the slower numbers we've seen and that's due to the more relaxed timings that are present on this kit. Since most kits we've looked at haven't had any problems dealing with a slight bump in the BCLK, we have done the same to the OCZ hoping that the looser timings that are present will mean it won't run into any problems.
With the BCLK set to 103 and no problem getting into Windows, we went back into the BIOS and set it to 104. What we ended up with was a memory clock of 2219MHz DDR which is the highest we've had on this machine so far. No doubt the looser timings helped. You can see that CPU-Z validation here. And now it's time to see what the increased speed does for performance.
Under AIDA64 we ended up with Read / Write numbers of 22,126 MB/s / 18,917 MB/s, Copy speed of 23,370 MB/s and latency of 38.7ns.
Looking at SiSoftware Sandra, our memory bandwidth numbers are 28,330 MB/s for Integer and 28,110 MB/s for Float.
Like our other kits that we've had joy overclocking with, we headed back to the BIOS and changed our CPU multiplier to 45. While we booted, we couldn't get in to Windows, so what we did was drop the BCLK from 104 to 103 like our other kits and we got into Windows with no dramas.
Once in we went back too AIDA64 and ended up with Read / Write numbers of 24,681 MB/s / 23,934 MB/s. You can also see our improved copy and latency numbers in the screenshot above.
At default the OCZ performs a little slower than the other 2133MHz kits we've looked at due to those looser timings. Those same timings do two things for us, though. One, they give us the ability to overclock a little higher. Secondly, and probably more importantly, the looser timings help keep pricing down, making this the cheapest 2133MHz DDR kit we've tested.
If you're after the MHz more than anything else, this is a great little kit as it carries with it a cheaper price tag. The more relaxed timings also give us a little more headroom when it comes to overclocking. Of course, you could relax the timings on other kits, but you're going to be paying more, so we're not sure why you would choose that option.
.... Read the full content in your browser!
Read More ...
MSI Radeon HD 6870 1GB HAWK Overclocked Video Card Review
Introduction
The HAWK series is one of my favorite, and that's mainly because it sits towards the top of the chart when it comes to what you can do with a card. At the bottom of the stack you've got your reference card. From there we introduce an overclock and over that you can start to look at custom cooling.
Once you get out of that area, you're into cards like the HAWK and Lightning which utilize custom PCBs. That introduces the ability to gain an even higher overclock than other models, and when combined with MSIs own overclocking software, Afterburner, we can really reach for the skies.
Unlike the Lightning series, though, the HAWK series name is more aimed around the midrange market with one of our most recent favorites being the GTX 470 HAWK. With the release of the GTX 560 Ti, though, a lot of pressure has been applied to the mid-range AMD models and today we intend to find out what the HD 6870 HAWK can bring to the party.
Before we look at the performance, though, we'll quickly look at the package and then the card itself. Once that's done we'll look at the default specifications along with what we overclocked the card to. After that the fun stuff begins and we pit the model up against a number of others to see what kind of performance we're able to achieve.
Because the focus on the HAWK series is much about the overclock and the out of the box overclock isn't the largest we've seen, we've decided to just skip out of the box performance today and instead overclock the card as high as we can while seeing how it compares to other cards in the AMD line-up and its new competition; the GTX 560 Ti.
The Package
The standout items in the package would include the mini-DP to DP adapter and the three little cables that you can see towards the bottom of the last pic. These, with a volt meter, allow you to grab the voltage of the AUX, Memory and GPU with ease. It's not the first time we've seen them, so you should have a good idea of how they work. We'll see exactly where they go on the card in just a minute, though.
.... Read the full content in your browser!
Read More ...
The Star Wars Saga Blu-rays – Will The Force Be With Us?
When Writer/ Director George Lucas took to the stage at the latest 'Star Wars Celebration V' fan convention in August 2010 to announce a Star Wars saga Blu-ray for release in 2011, fans were surprised. Afterall, he'd already committed to a 3D re-release of all six films starting from 2012. Additionally, 2012 marks the 30th Anniversary of the first film A New Hope. Still after the seemingly forever wait for the films to be released on DVD, fans won't complain that the Blu-ray's will have arrived with merciful haste.
In January of this year, Darth Vader and a platoon of Stormtroopers invaded the Consumer Electronics Show to announce that September 2011 would see the release of three separate Blu-ray packages, headlined by the ultimate 9 disc complete collection. We also have pricing ($139.95 SRP AUD). But other than that, details are rather scant.
So let's take a look at what actually is confirmed and what we believe will be part of the Star Wars saga boxset.
The Versions
With previous comments by Lucas, I find it extremely unlikely that we will see the original release versions of the film committed to Blu-ray. Instead we will likely see minor additions to the versions of the film that were released to DVD in 2004, which in turn were minor additions to the 1997 'Special Edition' versions.
It has been confirmed that the Yoda puppet from all scenes in The Phantom Menace has been replaced with the CG model that was produced for Attack of the Clones. Despite tests in 1998 which deemed it technically impossible at that time, this successful test was produced before production of Attack of the Clones started. Whilst not previously shown or released on video, a snippet can be seen on 'The Chosen One' documentary from the Revenge of the Sith DVD (or YouTube).
It is highly unlikely that any major deleted scenes will be inserted into the films proper, but it is expected that many scenes from all six films will be further tweaked. Think back to the enhancements created for the 'Special edition' as an example. I expect that some of the computer graphics from The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones which have aged poorly will be corrected. This will likely extend to the special edition CG additions to the original trilogy too. As the first time that all six films have been released together, Lucas will want all the films to look more cohesive than ever.
I feel that at the age of what is now approaching 70 years old, Lucas will not make many changes to the films in coming years and I fully expect that these Blu-rays will become the near final, if not definitive version of all the films.
The Transfer
Film restoration company Lowry Digital who restored the trilogy for the 2004 DVD release, which was also the basis for the 1080i transfers broadcast on HD TV channels, have allegedly performed more work for this set. Lowry worked at a bristling pace of just one month per month to restore each of the original films in 2004, which studio head John Lowry commented was some of the worst degradation that he had seen.
"A New Hope, for example, which was the worst of all, had maybe a million pieces of dirt in the first couple of reels of that movie. Unbelievable."
Due to the speed that Lowry had to work at to strike the 2004 transfers, a few errors were introduced in the process, such as wavering colours and errors in colour timing. However, I strongly suspect that Lowry has gone back and rescanned the film in higher resolution, as the corrections to the films for the 2004 DVD's were performed only at 1080p; hardly suitable for future use. Considering that Lucas needs high resolution versions of each film for 3D conversion and exhibition starting from 2012, new high resolution transfers will have to be struck. What we don't know is whether they will be featured on these Blu-rays, but I would tend to think they will be.
It is an absolute certainty that a new transfer will be used for The Phantom Menace. The current DVD and HD TV broadcast transfers are an absolute mess which were originally created at sub-par quality, allegedly so as to not look out of place with the original trilogy, which at that point had not been treated by Lowry Digital. Filled with film artefacts, noise and excessive grain, along with seemingly baked in edge enhancement, there is no way that transfer will be used.
.... Read the full content in your browser!
Read More ...
NVIDIA and Samsung Partner to Deliver the Galaxy Tab 10.1 Honeycomb Tablet
NVIDIA and Samsung Partner to Deliver the Galaxy Tab 10.1 Honeycomb Tablet
GALAXY Tab's Successor Powered by Tegra 2, Featuring a Dual-Core CPU plus an NVIDIA GeForce GPU That Enable Full Use of Android 3.0
SINGAPORE — February 14, 2011—NVIDIA and Samsung Electronics announced today the Galaxy Tab 10.1, a 10.1-inch screen tablet which uses the NVIDIA® Tegra™ 2 mobile super chip to take full advantage of the Android 3.0 (also known as Honeycomb) user interface.
While the previous 7-inch GALAXY Tab introduced the Android tablet space, the new Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet maximises the entertainment on-the-go experience. It features the Tegra 2 chip's dual-core CPU and GeForce GPU for faster Web browsing, snappier response time and overall better performance.
Galaxy Tab 10.1 utilises the Tegra 2 chip to power Honeycomb, the first GPU-accelerated user interface designed for tablets and other larger-screen devices.
The new Samsung tablet with Tegra 2 enables consumers to engage in multitasking, surf the web quickly with fast-loading Web pages and Flash-based content, enjoy console-quality gaming and savor HD movies.
"Our first GALAXY Tab successfully defined a new generation of Android tablets," said Hyungmoon Noh, VP of R&D Strategy Group, at Samsung. "We've worked closely with NVIDIA to raise the stakes again. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, with Honeycomb and Tegra 2, provide the optimal entertainment and multimedia experience without compromising mobility Samsung is known for."
"Samsung's latest tablet with the Tegra 2 mobile super chip and Honeycomb is a great example of what we've come to expect from one of the world's most innovative companies," said Michael Rayfield, General Manager of the Mobile business at NVIDIA.
The companies are also partnering to bring a new Android-based super phone with a dual-core CPU to consumers, for never-before-seen experiences.
About NVIDIA
NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) awakened the world to the power of computer graphics when it invented the GPU in 1999. Since then, it has consistently set new standards in visual computing with breathtaking, interactive graphics available on devices ranging from tablets and portable media players to notebooks and workstations.
NVIDIA's expertise in programmable GPUs has led to breakthroughs in parallel processing which make supercomputing inexpensive and widely accessible. The Company holds more than 1,700 patents worldwide, including ones covering designs and insights that are essential to modern computing. For more information, see www.nvidia.com.
Read More ...
No comments:
Post a Comment